Acer does go a bit beyond the brief with its software, but not in a good way. We get some officious software, Acer Jumpstart, popping up notifications here and there. If they were notifications for ways it can improve the system performance, maybe we shrug it off. But, when it’s a large promo for Forge of Empires, we’re inclined to uninstall the software on the spot. A weight of 1.14kg also means this is one of the lighter mid-range laptops out there, resulting in a super-convenient design for the likes of students who need to move from lecture to lecture. The Acer Swift 3 comes with a one-year limited warranty. See how Acer fared in our annual Tech Support Showdown and Best and Worst Brands special reports. Bottom line In our 4K media benchmark, the Swift 3 performed roughly as expected, reaching an overall score of 87, beating the 75 achieved by the Core i5-powered Acer Swift 5 (2019). As the chart above indicates, the Swift 3 is no match for the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 and Dell XPS 13 (2020), both of which use a Core i7-1065G7 and 16GB RAM. But all these laptops are bested by the Honor MagicBook 14, which hit 109 in the 4K media test with its AMD Ryzen 5 3500 and 8GB RAM.

Wi-Fi 6E-compatible devices are required to reach the stated speeds/benefits of Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax). There’s also some convenient support for Windows Hello, which can work either via the webcam or the fingerprint sensor. The Acer Swift 3 will absolutely wow you with how long it lasts on a single charge. While continuously browsing the web at 150 nits of brightness, the Swift 3 lasted 11 hours and 9 minutes. It will definitely last you your whole work day and then some. It also offers fast charging, so for 30 minutes of charge you can get 4 hours of use. The Acer Swift 720p webcam is standard and performs well. Like most webcams, the color is a little off in tone and the details are grainy, especially if the lighting isn’t right. If you need better quality, I suggest purchasing an external webcam. However, the Swift 3's camera will be sufficient for Zoom and Google Meet calls. Acer Swift 3 software and warranty

For the utilitarians in the crowd

Its 14-inch display features a relatively thin bezel, even with the top one housing a handy webcam. Unfortunately, this isn’t a flip-down panel, and nor is it a touchscreen. The Acer Swift 3 has long been one of the best mid-range laptops money can buy, and this 2021 edition brings with it some noteworthy upgrades.

Except for the plastic bottom cover, the Swift 3 is made entirely from aluminium and feels very solid. It looks smart, too, thanks to the all-over matte effect silver finish, which seems to be impervious to fingerprints. According to Acer’s internal lab data, when comparing 2021 Swift 3 (SF314-511) and 2022 Swift 3 (SF314-511) under performance mode and using Cinebench R20 to test. CPU performance (11 th Gen Intel ® Core™ i7-1165G7 vs latest 12 th Gen Intel ® Core™ i7-1260P) improved by up to 1.98x. Actual score may vary considerably by specifications, depending on product model, configuration, applications, power management settings, operating conditions, and features utilized. Performance variation also arises based on components in use, which includes but is not limited to the processor, RAM capacity, storage, display and resolution, etc. Acer hasn’t decided to spring any surprises with the Swift 3’s display. It utilises a handy 14-inch FHD (1920×1080) IPS panel, which is a good size for a compact laptop and gives you a useful amount of real estate. The Micron 1TB SSD that shipped with my review machine had fast sequential write speeds, too, at 3,127MB/sec while the sequential read speed of 3,110MB/sec was only meaningfully beaten by the Samsung Galaxy Book 3. There are also some more peripheral upgrades here, though, like the webcam, which jumps from 1080p to 1440p, and the preinstallation of Intel’s new Unison smartphone integration software, which seems to be destined to become part of the Intel Evo standard.The Acer Swift 3 comes with an AMD Radeon graphics card, which averaged at 79 frames per second on the Dirt 3 racing game benchmark. This surpasses the mainstream laptop average of 47 frames per second, and the Intel Swift 3, which produced 44 frames per second (yikes). However, the HP Envy got a win here, averaging at 92 frames per second. Acer Swift 3 (AMD) review: Battery life